Tag Archives: audience empowerment

On a weekly basis I religiously watching my Kitchen rules and I often focus on the tweets that are continuously flowing through. I found that my favourite teams weren’t everybody else’s favourites. Whilst I despise Ashley and Sophia a lot of people actually like them, shock I know. It was the recognition of tweets that made me realise that the “#” seems to fuel the competition and that the audience in a sense are also competing with one another through the discussion of the game itself. The conversation is now between the viewers, thus dialogic media. Television is now hearing what the audience says and now changing the format of shows due to what they hear, read and see on social media through the power of likes, hashtags and status updates.

“The people formerly known as the audience” – Jay Rosen. Portrays that individuals have the ability to consume but they can also produce content. Everybody wants to be heard everybody and can be heard because gatekeepers are now weak or non-existent.

Instagram, a popular application that is a prime example of new media embracing participatory culture and prosumers. Instagram allows individuals to share images of anything, anywhere at anytime. Subconsciously through it’s key functions instagram then makes the individual share, consume and produce. By taking a photograph and editing it the individual is without knowing producing. Shortly followed by sharing then through following, liking and commenting the individual is consuming the content. This is only the beginning, with media evolving and expanding individuals are gaining a greater empowerment in what they want to show and tell.

Our ability to consume and create content has lead to the emergence of individuals and groups to be empowered.